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Thursday

Nov 15, 2012 at 6:00 AM

NEW YORK — Despite days of dire forecasts and explicit warnings, hundreds of thousands of people in New York and New Jersey ignored mandatory evacuation orders as Superstorm Sandy closed in. Now, after scores of deaths and harrowing escapes, emergency officials will look at what more can be done to persuade residents to get out when their lives are in danger.

“The issue of those who either can’t or won’t abide by those orders — that is a question that we have to address,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said during a tour of ravaged Staten Island over the weekend.

The same troubling pattern has been seen in previous storms, and the ideas tried across the country include stern warnings about the dangers of staying behind, moral appeals not to imperil rescuers, scary ads, and laws that threaten fines or jail time. And yet people refuse to leave, and some come to regret it — that is, if they survive.

“Staying there was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” acknowledged Steve Shapiro, 55, a Staten Island resident who witnessed Sandy’s surge lift nearby houses off their foundations. Two of his neighbors, a 13-year-old girl and her 55-year-old father, died when the rushing water destroyed their house.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said officials should work to make sure residents can feel safe in shelters and confident their homes will be safeguarded in their absence.

DUBLIN — The debate over legalizing abortion in Ireland flared Wednesday after the government confirmed that a woman in the midst of a miscarriage was refused an abortion and died in an Irish hospital after suffering from blood poisoning.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he was awaiting findings from three investigations into the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian woman who was 17 weeks pregnant. Her case highlighted the legal limbo in which pregnant women facing severe health problems can find themselves in predominantly Catholic Ireland.

Ireland’s constitution officially bans abortion, but a 1992 Supreme Court ruling found the procedure should be legalized for situations when the woman’s life is at risk from continuing the pregnancy. Five governments since have refused to pass a law resolving the confusion, leaving Irish hospitals reluctant to terminate pregnancies except in the most obviously life-threatening circumstances.

The vast bulk of Irish women wanting abortions, an estimated 4,000 per year, simply travel next door to England, where abortion has been legal on demand since 1967. But that option is difficult, if not impossible, for women in failing health.

Halappanavar’s husband, Praveen, said doctors at University Hospital Galway in western Ireland determined she was miscarrying within hours of her hospitalization for severe pain on Oct. 21. He said over the next three days, doctors refused their requests for an abortion to combat her surging pain and fading health.

SAN FRANCISCO — California began auctioning permits Wednesday for greenhouse gas emissions, launching one of the world’s most ambitious efforts to cut heat-trapping gases from industrial sources.

The California Air Resources Board said it began selling the pollution “allowances” in a closed, online auction expected to create the world’s second-largest marketplace for carbon emissions.

Under the program, the state sets a limit, or cap, on emissions from individual polluters. Businesses are required to either cut emissions to cap levels or buy allowances through the auction from other companies for each extra ton of pollution discharged annually.

The board said the results of the auction — what price is paid for a ton of carbon, and how many companies participated — would be released Nov. 19. The cap-and-trade plan is a central piece of AB32, the state’s landmark 2006 global warming regulations.

NEW YORK — A man authorities say confessed to the infamous 1979 disappearance of a 6-year-old boy from his New York City neighborhood has been formally charged with murder and kidnapping, a major milestone in a case that has stymied investigators and Etan Patz’s family for decades.

The indictment against Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J., was made public Wednesday and sets up a potential showdown at trial over whether prosecutors can convince a jury that his claim that he strangled the boy — a secret kept for more than 30 years — is credible.

The suspect’s attorney has argued that Hernandez, who is due Thursday in state court in Manhattan on second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping charges, is mentally ill and prone to hallucinations, and that his confession can’t be trusted.

Prosecutors said an exhaustive post-arrest investigation found enough evidence to seek an indictment and proceed to trial.

LONDON — The former judge leading a BBC inquiry into child sex abuse allegations against one of the broadcaster’s late stars has launched a call for witnesses.

The BBC has come under fire for airing abuse allegations against one of its star hosts, Jimmy Savile, who died last year. Police say they have received complaints from some 300 victims of Savile and associates, and that some of the abuse may have occurred on BBC premises.

The Dame Janet Smith Review was launched to investigate the BBC’s culture and practices during the years that Savile worked there. The review’s website on Wednesday called for potential victims, witnesses, people who worked with Savile and senior staff at the time to get in touch to assist the investigation.